How AI Is Revolutionizing Business Efficiency

Efficiency isn’t just a goal for most businesses; it’s something many constantly strive to get better at. The benefits of becoming more efficient, including enhanced productivity and cost savings, are usually why. A boost can also improve customer service, increasing sales and loyalty.

To get there, organizations rely on ideas, strategies and tools. Naturally, technology has played a significant role in how companies have found ways to move the efficiency needle. But AI is doing more than assisting orgs in becoming more proficient. It’s changing what efficiency means all together. Below, I’d like to share three key ways AI is revolutionizing the meaning and scope across multiple industries.

Assists With Creativity

A brilliant ad campaign, captivating blog post and emotionally stirring photograph all have one thing in common. They’re finished products that start with the creative process. As humans, everyone knows the process is going to take time, blood, sweat and tears. But it doesn’t stop creative teams from wishing they could use some shortcuts to get to the finish line.

Well, AI-infused writing tools like ChatGPT and Jasper are not merely creating shortcuts. These tools are the shortcuts for teams juggling multiple projects with competing deadlines. Instead of thinking of an outline and the next paragraph, the tools immediately generate them. The results may require some tweaking, but hours of racking the brain aren’t necessary.

Creatives can overcome the ideation stumbling blocks and refine or augment content quickly. Other writing tools, such as Anyword, focus on assisting with social media and online ads. Known as short-form content, it must grab people’s attention and convince them to act now. For visual content, there are tools such as Canva or Dalle.E 3, which is part of ChatGPT Plus. Even with routine content like emails, AI tools can save 30 minutes to an hour.

Helps Visualize Data

What’s one of the common denominators in organizations? Leaders take data and present it in ways that convey meaning. Audiences, whether internal or external, want more than the facts. It’s easy to bore and confuse them with tons of figures. Business leaders also struggle with how to use and digest the data they have.

While 73% agree data decreases uncertainty and increases decision-making accuracy, usage percentages are less. Sixty-seven percent of leaders aren’t using information to make pricing decisions aligned with economic factors. In addition, only 29% of those at the helm are relying on data for launching new market strategies. Simply put, they’re taking shots in the dark in hopes of achieving success.

To say the least, this approach isn’t efficient. But while plenty of data may be within leaders’ reach, they may not understand what it’s revealing. It’s also a time-consuming process to assemble information from multiple sources and get to the nitty-gritty insights. AI-backed design tools, such as Infogram, create infographics so insights from data are easy to grasp. Anything from KPIs to market research can become digestible.

Shortens Research Time

Half the battle in conducting online research is using the right keywords and phrases. The other half is sifting through the results to find what’s relevant. Furthermore, does the information answer the question thoroughly enough to count? Going back to the drawing board isn’t unusual, delaying the process.

Thankfully, search engines are using generative AI to build efficiency into the task of online research. Google’s Search Generative Experience or SGE is an example. A summary of the answers from multiple sources is seen at the top, eliminating the need to skim through them. The SGE function also includes links to relevant sources to the right of the summary. No more sifting through pages and pages of results to find them.

Depending on what SGE produces, it can change the trajectory of a team’s research. Employees quickly identify gaps, relevancy and extensiveness by seeing collective information on a topic. Teams can instantly gain an overview, with potential nuggets to source. Reports, strategies and informative content become less time-intensive to create.

Improving Business Efficiency With AI

Businesses can’t accomplish more without making strides in efficiency. As a strategic adviser in the content marketing strategy industry, I’ve witnessed firsthand just how much of an impact AI has made in both the SEO world and in business efficiency as a whole. Whether it’s strategy execution or creative processes, finding ways to increase productivity is part of each employee’s responsibility. However, human capabilities come with well-known limitations. Technologies are typically introduced to enhance human abilities, sometimes extending them and at times replicating those qualities.

AI represents the cutting edge of what technology can do to boost people’s efficiency in the workplace. Although AI’s range is still developing, it’s changing how teams create content, visualize data and collect research. As AI continues to learn from human-led processes, business leaders may discover efficiencies they didn’t realize were possible.